Having the look of the Tanit PlanaTo understand his work, it implies reinvention, a constant quest to see the world that surrounds us and a great ability to photograph what is really invisible to the eye. His camera never rests, always on the cusp between his more reflective work and his love for architecture and spaces (with two bricks), but he has found a moment to share his concerns and motivations with us in this interview.
Tell us about yourself and your work. Where did your vocation begin? Any early memories?
I am 45 years old, the mother of two sons and a daughter, from two different fathers. I am contradictory, undecided and resolute. I am in process. I am a photographer. I like to look, I like to swim, I like to eat. I like love. I live in Barcelona. Space, architecture understood in a broad sense, used to cross me and touch me deeply. My vocation as a photographer was born feeling the smell of the developing chemicals my father used to use.
What do you enjoy most about your work? Is there any work you are particularly proud of?
I see photography as a way of relating to the world and to other people. A form of learning. That is what makes sense to me, the encounter with others, the establishment of bonds and affections, the encounter of things and architectures, not so much with the sole purpose of creating an image, but with the aim of transforming ourselves through shared time. The project PUBERwhich can be seen at La Virreina until the end of February 2021, is the ultimate expression of this way of experiencing photography as a space of encounter and transformation. The project consists of 75 portraits of young people, a graffiti, a compilation of Tiktoks, a sound geography in the form of a Spotify playlist, and three podcasts.
How is your creative process? What are your sources of inspiration? Any special music while you work?
The gateway to any project is usually something that happens to me in my intimacy, whether it has to do with the idea of love or with the structures of the internet. Very often the starting point has to do with the feeling of not fully understanding what I feel or what I see. From here, what I do is an artistic investigation and collection of other views and readings on the subject I'm focusing on. And, without pressure, more concrete and structured proposals are taking shape and taking shape through photographic series. Music, piano. Sources of inspiration, I try not to get bogged down in anything and to go back in time, the further back in time, the better.
Favourite colour, book, film and record. In that order! ;D
Black is beginning and end, it is rest, it is everything and it is nothing, infinity, depth and flatness.
The closure of loveby Pascal Rambert, a piece that skims you with bad blood, vertiginous form and rhythm, tears and truth in equal parts.
Tot Billy Wilder: humour, intelligence and speed. Some Like it Hot, The Apartment, One, Two, Three... No puc triar.
He pogut deixar d'escoltar The Köln Concert by Keith Jarrett and now the obsession is the Goldberg Variations by Glenn Gould, and Aria 39 from the Passion according to Saint Matthew, also by Bach. Buf.
Does your home reflect who you are? Tell us what it smells like, your favourite spot, your favourite decorative object or piece of furniture, if you treasure a collection...
My house is my temple, it's been a couple of years that I live with my three children and a husband in a very small flat in the centre of Sarrià, it's a marvel. I am possessed by the spirit of Marie Kondo, and I have thanked a lot of storage for all the lessons learned and now I have very, very few things, all very important, but very few! The land allows me to see, from afar, how the sun rises over the sea, the clouds that cover Vallvidrera, and the electric blue of the evening sky. My corner, home and refuge is my all-white room, always white walls, white walls without images and a bookshelf full of all the photography books that I love and venerate. The piece of furniture that accompanies me is a tangerine drum produced by Thonet and designed by Verner Panton in 1965, which we rescued, by pure intuition, from a flat that was being demolished before building work was done.
If you could buy anything right now and take it home, what would it be? Anything!
I love the Single Daybed which Donald Judd designed in 1978. Also the frame of Ellsworth Kelly, Study for White Plaque: Bridge Arch and Reflection 1951.
A "planazo" at home always includes...
Terrat, amigues i vi.
Do you have any star plat?
Melon sliced into large cubes with drops of fresh lemon for dessert.
Where is your favourite place in your city? And abroad?
The outdoor swimming pool of the Club Natació Atlètic Barceloneta where I can swim, every day of the year, rain or snow, in warm water. Catàrtic. When I lived in New York I used to weep with pure euphoria walking past the Guggenheim, eating in Little Italy's nightclubs, and going to the Angelika to watch movies on Houston Street.
To have the gaze of Tanit Plana, to understand her work, implies reinvention, a constant search to see the world that surrounds us, and a great ability to photograph what is really invisible to the eye. His camera never rests, but he has found a moment to share his concerns and motivations with us in this interview.
